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Jigoku Shoujo

Rumors say that if you access a certain website, Jigoku Tsuushin (Hell Link), you can get your avenge on people you hate by writing the name of the person towards whom you have a grudge. When you do that Jigoku Shoujo (Hell Girl) will send them to hell.

The girl who appears is a girl introducing herself as Ai Enma (CV: Mamiko Noto). She gives you a strawdoll and tell you that when you untie the red thread, the person you have a grudge against is sent straight to hell. However, after you die, you too, is sent to hell.

I can’t say I particularly liked it, but I have to say I think this is one of the shows everyone should watch. It’s a slow-paced psychological horror. The episodes are for most part stand-alones and until Hajime (CV: Yuuji Ueda) and Tsugumi Shibata (CV: Nana Mizuki) appears there’s no overall story whatsoever. The first season then ends by telling you why Ai is doing what’s she’s doing. The only character that has some kind of development is probably Ai. She goes, very slowly, from calm to restless, but it’s so subtle you have to hear it from her minions. The animation is inconsistent in style, while not bad quality for being a show from late 2005/early 2006. I didn’t really like the intro, while I did like the outro song, sung by Ai’s voice actor Mamiko Noto.

But why would I say something I don’t particularly like is something everyone should watch? It plays on human psychology. While Ai never tells anyone revenge is wrong, Hajime tries to persuade the people who has contacted the girl that revenge is wrong. The child, Tsugumi, is seeing it as a good thing that bad guys are immediately sent to hell and that because someone has a grudge against them, they have to be bad guys. She however, learns she’s wrong about that, and it confuses the poor child. In other words, I like the deeper meaning of the show, although I don’t like the show itself.

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